Herbalife Earnings and Outlook Top Forecasts
After a battle royale over Herbalife stock between titans Bill Ackman and Carl Icahn, the numbers are in: Herbalife's fourth-quarter earnings and 2013 outlook topped forecasts.
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Earnings rose to $1.05 a share from 86 cents per share posted a year earlier.
Revenue jumped nearly 20 percent to $1.06 billion from $884.6 million a year ago, helped by stronger sales in Asia-Pacific.
For the full-year, the nutritional-supplements company raised its earnings guidance to a range of $4.45 to $4.65 per share and it sees first-quarter earnings of $1.03 to $.1.07 a share. Analysts were modeling earnings of $4.04 per share for the full year.
Net sales are expected to grow 12 percent to 14 percent for the full year.
Herbalife has also repurchased 4 million shares so far this year and the board approved a 30 cents per share quarterly dividend.
The company will hold its conference call on Wednesday at 11 a.m. ET.
Herbalife shares are currently caught in the middle of an investor fight between Ackman, a hedge-fund manager who is shorting the stock, and Icahn, a billionaire investor who holds a nearly 13 percent stake in the company.
Pershing Square's Ackman has called Herbalife a "pyramid scheme" and has made a $1 billion bet against the company.
Herbalife disclosed in a filing that following the Ackman news in December 2012, the SEC's enforcement division, requested information regarding the its business and financial operations. Herbalife said it will fully comply with these inquiries.
The two famously battled over the stock and past business dealings on CNBC's "Fast Money Halftime Report" last month.
(Read More: Icahn, Ackman in Epic Showdown of Billionaires)
Meanwhile, hedge-fund manager Daniel Loeb, who had taken a big stake in Herbalife during the fourth quarter, has sold part of his position, a source told CNBC.
Loeb, who runs Third Point, started selling a few weeks ago and has continued to trade around the position, the source said, including this past Friday when shares surged.
